Gitmo

Advisers to President-elect Obama say he'll issue an executive order to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay (seen here at right) soon after inauguration. Less clear is the Obama team’s strategy for dealing with Gitmo's 250 detainees; some experts say a shutdown could take a year. Meantime, new allegations about the treatment of Gitmo detainees surfaced as the confirmation process began for Hillary Clinton's nomination for secretary of state and a statement purportedly from Osama bin Laden called for a holy war against Israel as Israeli forces pushed further into Gaza. To learn more about critical foreign policy issues, check out our Citizen’s Survival Kit.